New Delhi: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has issued a strong statement over Israel’s siege of the Gaza strip, calling the deaths of Palestinians in the densely-populated enclave a “genocide”.
Taking to social media platform X, Priyanka said the high number of casualties was a “deplorable and disgraceful” milestone.
Gaza’s health ministry had said Saturday that a newborn had died in an incubator at the Al Shifa hospital, the biggest in the enclave, after it stopped operating due to lack of fuel, according to a Reuters report.
“Still, no shock to the conscience of those supporting this genocide, no ceasefire…just more bombs, more violence, more killings and more suffering,” Priyanka wrote on X.
What a deplorable and disgraceful milestone…over 10,000 people killed in Gaza of which almost half are children. One child is being killed every ten minutes according to the WHO, and now tiny babies had to be removed from their incubators due to lack of oxygen and were left to…
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) November 13, 2023
The Congress leader also took a veiled dig at the Narendra Modi government, which she implied was among those “supporting this destruction”. “Shame on the governments supporting this destruction. When is it going to be enough?”
The Congress’s stance over the Israel-Hamas war has seen much dithering, but Priyanka Gandhi’s post Monday was the clearest indication yet over the party’s final view — doubling down on the party’s historical support to the Palestinian people, and advocating their right to self-governance.
Congress’s see-saw over Israel-Hamas war
A day after the attack, Congress general secretary in-charge for communications Jairam Ramesh had condemned Hamas’s action as “brutal”, but said the party believed in the “legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people”. Ramesh, however, also spoke about “ensuring legitimate national security interests of the Israeli people”.
A section of party leaders then raised objections to Ramesh’s statement, saying it did not reflect the Congress’s historic position on the issue.
The very next day, a resolution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, found no mention of the word “Israel” at all. Instead, it expressed anguish over the war and reiterated the party’s support for the rights of the Palestinian people.
The resolution read: “The CWC expresses its dismay and anguish on the war that has broken out in the Middle East where over a thousand people have been killed in the last two days. The CWC reiterates its long-standing support of the rights of the Palestinian people to land, self-government and to live with dignity and respect.”
On 20 October, however, there was another course correction of the party’s stand on the ongoing war. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took to X to condemn Hamas’s attack on Israel while reiterating the party’s support for the people of Palestine.
This line was maintained by Sonia Gandhi on 30 October, who wrote in a newspaper column that the party condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel but also denounced the retaliatory Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. She further wrote that the Congress’s stand on the issue was “long standing” and “principled”. “…it is to support direct negotiations for a sovereign, independent, viable and secure state of Palestine coexisting in peace with Israel. This is also the stand taken by the Ministry of External Affairs on October 12, 2023.”
The 7 October assault by Hamas, which controls Gaza, killed over 1,200 people, Israeli authorities have said, while around 240 people were taken hostage.
In retaliation, Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the densely-populated coastal strip has killed over 11,000, according to Hamas’s health ministry, including over 4,000 children.
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